Utility of the surgical treatment for severe epistaxis by endoscopic approach of sphenopalatine and ethmoidal arteries

To evaluate the efficacy and cost-effectiveness of the treatments used for controlling epistaxis, particularly compared with the surgical endoscopic ligation or cauterization of sphenopalatine (SP) and anterior ethmoid (AE) arteries, a intervention prospective-retrospective study is presented with the aim of assessing the feasibility of these surgical techniques as an alternative to conventional treatments. 184 consecutive patients admitted in the ENT ward between the years 1997 and 2005 were included in the study, and distributed into three groups depending on the last treatment applied to control their bleeding: AP group.- anterior packing (n=98); PP group.- posterior packing (n=66), and ES group.- endoscopic ligation and/or cauterization of SP or AE (n=20). Highly significant differences were found between the groups, not only regarding the efficacy (90% for surgical treatment compared with 41.3% for AP and 63.1% for PP), but also the length of postreatment hospital stay (AP.- 4.92 days; PP.- 6.3 days; ES.- 2.15 days). The lack of efficacy of conventional treatment and the increasing risk factors that condition nasal bleeding, together with the advance of endoscopic and anesthesic procedures have brought along the possibility of a surgical solution for these patients. Our results demonstrate the feasibility of these techniques as alternative for nasal packing in the treatment of posterior epistaxis, and even its ethical and economical convenience as a substitutive to posterior packing.